Everything John Calipari said on Friday's episode of BBN Tonight

Kentucky Men’s Basketball head coach John Calipari joined in for some media rounds throughout the workweek, first making an appearance on the Paul Finebaum Show, where he talked about reinstalling the “gold standard”, last year’s early NCAA Tournament exit, and even wanting to bring back the Big Blue Madness campout.

Calipari spoke once again this past week, this time on BBN Tonight for a multi-episode analysis of his thoughts on the program. The first episode from Calipari’s conversation with LEX18’s Keith Farmer aired on Friday night, with more coming throughout next week. Farmer said that future conversations revolve around potential facility upgrades plus Oscar Tshiebwe’s decision to return to Kentucky, and more.

During Friday’s episode, the 13-year Wildcat coach gave his thoughts on the upcoming Big Blue Bahamas tour, a quick breakdown of the roster, and his excitement level for the 2022-23 season.

The most notable comments, in my opinion, were what he had to say about Lance Ware and Sahvir Wheeler. Calipari said he’s hoping to add 10-20 pounds to Ware’s frame. He also said that Wheeler gained roughly 8-9 pounds following his injury during the 2021-22 season.

Below is the entire transcript from Calipari’s appearance.

On returning to the Bahamas…

“Like every four years we’ve done this. They’ve been home runs. It brings a team together, you’re playing good competition. It’s the start of another year, and so important to get us going again and get our focus ahead of where we’re going with this. Now people would say from the Atlantis to the Baha Mar, why did you do it? Well, first of all, I like the fact that the fans did not have to buy a package. They could buy individual games. Or you could buy all four games. You could stay on that facility, probably 40 more dollars than Atlantis, close to the airport. I just said you know what, let’s do this, let’s try this. We’re gonna make it the best trip ever. The fans that go, the ones that have been with us know, we make it about them too. My whole career has been about people in the upper deck. That’s where I grew up. When I went to games, I was in the upper deck and my whole job was to get down low to sit before the game ended. So the things we do are to make sure we can take care of the fans in this kind of event. It’s gonna be a ball. This is a shorter trip, a great destination, and our fans become part of it. We have open practices, we have different things you do to connect with the players and our fans that go to the game. I’ll say it’s a little smaller venue, so if you want to be involved you’re probably gonna have to get those tickets because it’s not as big a venue as Atlantis, but it’s newer. I’ve had people call and say thank you for this because I’ve been there and it’s unbelievable. The team’s excited about getting it going and saying this kicks off this kind of year. And we got a good group. I just got done meeting with each individual player, we’ll do something at my house this week that goes over the culture here, what it means. Because no one’s changing this culture. The culture helps change you and change your life forever.”

On the returning players using last year to guide them…

“Well, there’s two things. One, we had a heck of a year. Unbelievably bad finish, that crushed me, crushed them, crushed our fans, and it should have. The one thing about having the fans here, you’ve got these fans. The other side is you lose a game like that, they’re angry, they’re mad, just like I am. That’s all part of this. We’ve got returning players. I’ll give you an example. Sahvir (Wheeler) had a heck of a year. Now the end wasn’t great. Okay let’s get that right. He was one of the best point guards in the country. Fast, speed, there were games — North Carolina, Kansas — where he was like unbelievable. We need that to be more consistent. He came in, he’s lost weight. When he got hurt, gained 8-9 pounds. How about we get CJ (Fredrick). This kid makes every shot, just hadn’t been healthy. He’s so thin he said I’m gonna gain 5-8 pounds of muscle weight, because he looks so good. He looks like he looked in high school. Antonio (Reeves), wait until you see this guy. You have Cason (Wallace), you have Chris (Livingston). These two are so excited to be here, physically ready to be here. You’ve got Jacob (Toppin), who the NBA people told me did great at the workouts. You’ve got Lance (Ware) and Daimion (Collins) and what’s the other kid? The kid Oscar (Tshiebwe)? So all the sudden, Adou (Thiero) comes in and you’ve got a group of guys, one — CJ said to me, ‘we’ve got a bunch of dogs’ and when you have that kind of team — you know last year, again I said it, we needed Daimion on the court more. We needed Jacob on the court more. Okay, there you go. And Lance, we need him on the court more. I want to put 10, 15, maybe even 20 pounds on Lance. So that not only is he that guy, he physically can impose his will because the games that we needed him, Lance was always there. Now we want him on the court more. To get on the court more, let’s get a little more physicality to it.”

On getting excited about the team…

“Let me tell you what happens as you get older… Losing gets harder, and there are certain losses that are way worse than others, but they’re all bad. Losing just is awful, and as you get older it’s worse. So if you’re not absolutely enjoying the winning, the competing for national titles, which we’re trying to do every year here, which we normally do. Or if winning becomes a relief, now you got problems. Because the winning has got to overwhelm the grief of losing. And then the second thing here is seeing players develop. Kids that came here as four-stars. Who knew TyTy (Washington)? Who knew him? Who ever thought Oscar was gonna do what he did, or see Daimion and Jacob about to do what they’re gonna do? Or had Sahvir, the best point guard in the country for stretches last year? Developing players and people, seeing them go to Dawson Springs together and do a Samaritan’s feet, where they’re washing feet. Seeing all that and having them say that was so powerful, coach. Knowing that these are young people that are growing and getting better. There’s nothing better.”